2014: A Good Year

There’s so much the President has accomplished . . . Paul Krugman hits two highlights in a column that begins:

. . . [T]hese days much of the commentary you see on the Obama administration — and a lot of the reporting too — emphasizes the negative: the contrast between the extravagant hopes of 2008 and the prosaic realities of political trench warfare, the troubles at the Department of Veterans Affairs, the mess in Iraq, and so on. The accepted thing, it seems, is to portray Mr. Obama as floundering, his presidency as troubled if not failed.

But this is all wrong. You should judge leaders by their achievements, not their press, and in terms of policy substance Mr. Obama is having a seriously good year. In fact, there’s a very good chance that 2014 will go down in the record books as one of those years when America took a major turn in the right direction. . . .

If you don’t mind feeling a little better about things, read the whole thing: Krugman’s take on health care and climate change. Which is to say, the health of our people and our planet.

(Meanwhile, have you noticed that housing prices have stabilized and the stock market’s at record highs? That the debt’s stopped growing relative to the economy as the deficit continues to fall? That America beat Ghana in the World Cup? Hey, listen!)